Why Play Tryndamere?

Introduction

fwii is known as #1 Tryndamere Africa, I, Hao, #1 Tryndamere NA made the guide and credited it towards him because I copied his Tryndamere and just expanded on it. -Dyrone

Although Tryndamere is known to be a "troll pick" or only known as "AP Tryndamere", he's still a very strong pick as a top lane. TOP LANE* NOT JUNGLE!

Due to the current meta of TANKINESS and BARRIER, of course Tryndamere is something that is not a part of the meta. There are clearly better champions than him. (IN TEAM PLAY)

This guide is focused on SOLO QUEUE TRYNDAMERE and focused on helping you understand how to win mostly every game with him top. Why a solo queue guide and not a team play guide? Consider this, why teach you how to play Tryndamere in a team environment? At some point when you join a team, there are indeed better champions than Tryndamere that is best fitted to your team, but that will not happen for a while. Face reality, get up there first and be recognized, wherever it may be.

Pros:

1v2, 1v3, 1v4, 1v5 Material

King of Split Pushing (Annoyance)

Snowballs Quickly

Cheese Strategy (Early Level 2) - Further Explanation Later

Best Tower Diver

Strong Damage Output (All Game)

Fun To Play HEHEHE!

Crazy Mobility

Feed And Still Wins

High AD (Passive Q)

Cannot Stack Armor Against Tryndamere

Cons:

Risk Taker

CC'd to Death (Bad In Team Fights)

Easily Kited

Reliance On Lucky Crits (Early Game)

REALLY HARD TO PLAY - Further Explanation Later

Easily countered by Simply Kyou's Nunu.

tldr; Tryndamere never loses lane top. NEVER! He is REALLY hard to play, NOT EASY as it looks. 1-6 (HARD MODE) 6-18 (EASY MODE) There is more to Tryndamere than just right clicking. Need a lot of experience playing Tryndamere, cannot master after one game. Just know that. Really high skill cap, involves a lot of mechanics, and is not easy as sustaining lane by spamming Q.

Aatrox Patch - Jungle Changes / Cheesing

Cheesing is still possible. You cannot stop Tryndamere. It is just a lot harder to do. Being able to do those early jungle camps ensured cheesing was possible. Now it is just a lot harder to cheese. There is a 50/50 chance that you will hit level 2 first if you play it correctly, and a chance that you might not be able to. It is just more difficult to lane, but more practice with you as Tryndamere. Most lanes now are just gonna be a normal lane, doesn't mean you are gonna lose your lane. Nothing changed about Tryndamere. The jungle camps were! GET IT!?

tldr; Notes

1. Remember, its SOLO QUEUE. PLAY SOLO. NOT 5s. (LAST HIT ALL KILLS)
2. You are the team, lead your teammates to victory! HAH. paradox.
3. Bring the lanes to you, don't waste your time going to other lanes.
4. Make their jungler camp you, kill them both.
5. Enjoy SOLO QUEUE, you win some you lose some. Don't make it stressful.
6. Taking risks may involve a lot of mistakes, but you will usually have the lead either way.
7. Always have more farm than your opponent. = AHEAD
8. K/D/A does not determine skill, you can tell if a person is good or bad by their farm.
9. Man Up, Take Risks, Win Game. You have to take risks as Tryndamere.
10. Carry, Rinse and Repeat! ~ No Fudge Given. - Better Recognize!
11. This is a PURE SOLO QUEUE TRYNDAMERE Guide.

~Its A Guide: Treat It Like One:
Remember its a guide, you do not have to completely follow it. I do not go into depth into every single thing, but give you quick notes and information. It guides you through winning with Tryndamere, the rest is through experience.

~Quick Note:
The early, mid, late game are IDEAL SITUATIONS where you will never lose, Tryndamere takes a lot of skill, and this guide is focused on auto-win tops. In situations where you lose lane, will be discussed in one section only. Find it!

~Skins:
Highlander Tryndamere is his best skin. Do not use Demonblade Trydamere. Highlander > King > ... GO CLASSIC! The Crit animation is different depending on the skin. Some skins attack faster than the other. Remember this! Too bad Highlander Tryndamere is GONE!

~What To Ban:
ALWAYS BAN WHAT BEATS YOU TOP. IGNORE EVERYONE ELSE.
First Pick: Ban Singed > Elise > Malphite > Whatever ELSE
Even though Elise is the strongest against Tryndamere, she is not a priority ban. Alright! Singed is more annoying because he can fling you into tower. You can assume that there are not many good Elise in the league population. 1% of Elise players can take you down. 99% of Elise players are easy to beat.

~Early Game Is Most Important:
Kinda why MID/LATE game chapters are not really completed/full length, but this guide is completed. Weird logic NP.

~Experience:
Please remember that its all experience with Tryndamere. You will learn most through playing him, you cannot just pick up on him from reading this guide extensively. Tryndamere has a lot more mechanics to him more than anything.

Masteries

Always run 21/9/0 masteries for Tryndamere. Basically, the masteries in the offensive tree is perfect for Tryndamere. There is not a single wasted point.

Offensive

What's most important is Lethality (5%+ Crit DMG Ranged & 10%+ Crit DMG Melee) and the added bonus Frenzy that gives you 10% more ATK SPEED after landing a crit. Thanks to Tryndamere's passive this really helps in the early game phase which makes you have a crazy early game advantage.

Defensive

Going 9 in Defensive gives you the early game advantage that you are looking for. Every point counts. Armor + Health! All Day Every Day.

~When To Change
Only time you would change your masteries is to compensate for AP tops. This is where you will have 3 points in the MR boost instead of Armor.

Utility

Going 9 in Utility is not that worth. Usually I go 9 in utility for longer buff duration, but in this case of Tryndamere of early game advantage, take the 9 in the defensive tree.

Explanation of Offensive Masteries
This is basically the standard mastery page for almost every AD champion. Summoner's Wrath : Boosts ghost + ignite. Makes you run faster, +5 AD, and +5 AP. Fury : 1% ATK Speed per point. Because Tryndamere scales with ATK Speed, this is really good. Deadliness : Bonus AD, the more the merrier. Weapon Expertise : Gives you Armor Pen, 8% is rather a lot. Free armor penetration is always a must. Havoc : Though 2% more damage is not a whole lot, there is no other points to put 3 points into. Brute Force : Bonus AD, the more the merrier. Sunder : Gives you +5 Armor Pen, the more the merrier. Executioner : 5% more damage is not a whole lot, but its the completion to the offensive tree.

Runes

There are two main rune pages for Tryndamere. One is a general Tryndamere rune page, and the other is for AP Tops that are dirty!

Tryndamere scales with ATK Speed. So get as much ATK Speed as you can. Other runes like FLAT AD, Crit DMG, Crit Chance, ARMOR Penetration is not needed. You do more damage with the more hits you can land.

YOU MUST HAVE LIFESTEAL QUINTS. This helps him outsustain almost every single matchup top lane. This is what makes Tryndamere such a godlike top solo.

YOU MUST HAVE ATK Speed. This allows you to solo early level 1 camps wolves/wraiths/golems. Without ATK Speed you would not be able to get the first hit off and run from an enemy champion when harassing. Having ATK Speed allows you to hit and run with E.
HAHA, Ignore the extra magic resistances on this page, its just 1 FLAT MR and 1 MR x LEVEL. It's not a really big deal, should be 21% ATK Speed. Usually you will be rockin' this rune page. Even against AP casters I tend to use this page. The magic resist page is usually a last resort.

The 12 FLAT MR is for strong AP Tops that cause you a lot of grief. Usually you won't run this page. AP Teemo, AP Rumble, who else.. IDK tell me. Just use this page for any problems against heavy AP casters.

Summoner Spells

Ghost over Flash because your Spinning Slash is #1. If they end up flashing away from you, you'll catch up faster with ghost.

Ignite gives you +5 AD and +5 AP like a boss. The damages are strong in this one. Nothing can really replace Ignite, as it can help you get kills during tower dives. You will dive a lot of towers with Tryndamere. It is a must.

Basically, getting other spells that are focused on being PASSIVE over AGGRESSIVE equals losing your lane.

Some may consider, why not Teleport on Tryndamere? Since your splitpushing all game, wouldn't this be good? Yeah, your splitpushing all game, why do you need it then. Remember, SOLO QUEUE is about winning your lane.

Skill Order

Reason why you can usually get Bloodlust at level 3 instead of Mocking Shout is because you will usually hit level 4 in no time. Getting Q first will give you an early advantage when harassing. At this point of level 3. You are probably right next to their tower, there is no need for W yet because you will be harassing them on the tower. More damage over debuffing them.

Skills

Self-explanatory.
35% Crit at 100 Fury. Keep this up at all times if possible. This is what makes Tryndamere so strong in level 1 or even level 2 fights. 35% will give you a lot of lucky PROCs (Percent Rate of Chance) to crit. This is what make Tryndamere such a risk taker when fighting/diving. But do not always rely on this to win. It involves a lot of mechanics more than just this.

BE CALM AT ALL TIMES. This is one of the hardest skills to use with Tryndamere. It is more than just pressing Q and then just healing up. There are many different situations where using this and not using this is good or bad. If you deplete your fury, then you no longer have 35% Crit, take that into note.

Passive:

Bonus +5 AD x Level

Bonus .35 AD x 1% HP Missing

Tryndamere scales with ATK Speed, there is no reason to go other runes besides ATK Speed, this is what his Passive is for. The faster you attack, the more hits you can land, especially with these bonuses.

This skill lowers the ATK DMG of your opponent. This is what makes it so strong. Whenever you start engaging on them, use it if its just a trade-off of damage NP. They will not stay and fight a Tryndamere. If you know your damage output and are stronger than them from the start, save this until they start running and use it for the slow debuff.

~Usefulness
This can be used for facechecking bushes because this skill becomes available when a target is in range. Take note of that when going alone.

BE CALM AT ALL TIMES. Tryndamere involves a lot of risk taking. Knowing your damage output and your enemy's damage output is the key to winning. EVERY SECOND COUNTS. Using it too early may cause your death, using it too late may cause your death, use it just right. This just involves a lot of experience with Tryndamere, it is not something you can immediately pick up. Remember to tower dive a lot when your ultimate is up. ^^;; Usually you will hit 6 before your opponent, take advantage of this and get ready immediately to trick them thinking you still level 5 and dive.

Item Build

Starting Items:

Q: Why no Elixir of Fortitude start?
A: Not needed. Let's say you get first blood with the elixir start, you basically have only gained 50G off that FB. At this point, your first trip back, you will not be able to even afford a Vampiric Scepter & Boots of Speed.

Usually you get this when you mess up in lane, or are really behind. This helps you keep sustaining because you will most likely be on your tower harassed over and over. Hurts to be on the other end ):/

Statikk Shiv is basically all Tryndamere needs to be unstoppable. The reason for this item is the passive which deals +100 lightning magic damage, +200 if you Crit. Works perfectly with Tryndamere. Most of your opponents will stack armor against you.. About 200-300 armor by then and they would have 30 MR, which shows why you need this magic damage. Another reason for this item is its pushing potential, its so strong when it comes to AFK pushing or splitpushing.

IE: Just adds to your Crit DMG multiplier. Get this before any other item.
LW: Armor Penetration, to those who stack armor. Dirty.
BOTRK: Might as well finish cutlass. ^^;;

Q: WHY BOTRK SO LATE?
A: You only need cutlass for the slow, the movespeed bonus & lifesteal bonus is not needed. It is too costly when there are clearly better options which increase your damage output.

Matchups (A-Z)

Please skip to final comments for further information if there are questions on matchups. The only things posted here will be VIDEOS ONLY against certain matchups. Please know that Tryndamere loses to no one top once you master him. You may think that certain champs like, Jax, Teemo, Nasus may beat Tryndamere. Probably the only champion Tryndamere has the hardest time with is Elise.. Because shes more broken than anyone.. This list will be updated from time to time. Some videos are early game only, some are lengthy, some are short, and some are just quick pointers.

General Matchup Guide (A-Z)

This is just a general matchup guide for almost every top laner, some of them I don't agree with, but you should get the general idea who is a problem or not. -Credit to Kobato Hasegawa

~Main Tips
Most champions matchups are simple, the things in ( ) are usually focused towards how to tower dive them. Laning against them is usually, or cannot be explained. Will be numbered next to the ( ).
1 - Laning Against Them
2 - Diving Them
3 - Laning & Diving Them

Early Game

Cheesing basically is a quick rush to level two without your opponent knowing and taking advantage of that. Immediately spin on them if possible and get hits off. If first blood is possible, go ghost and ignite if needed.

If You Got First Blood

Keep your advantage, continually harass them on the tower. Tower dive when possible, trade the kills and they will lose a lot of experience and minions. To harass on tower. Auto-attack once, then spin away. The spin has a big AOE which will hit. Sometimes tower will not even aggro hit you because you spun away too quickly.

Shoving Lane VS. Freezing

Harassing on enemy tower is Tryndamere's speciality. When you are behind/weak you should freeze the lane and last hit until you believe you are ahead. When you know you are ahead, shove the lane as fast as you can and harass them on the tower. It puts them behind because of the pressure. To harass on tower, autoatack once then E away quickly.

Anything Else

If just a farm game and no kills till 6. Take advantage of your level 6 and immediately dive when possible.

tldr; Rush level two and get FB, continue to keep your lead and take advantage of any given opportunity.

~Keep pushing, take all enemy jungle.
After your Statikk Shiv, you should be unstoppable. If you are on the blue side, the purple team’s top jungle should be yours. Try to steal their golems, wraiths, and red buff (usually 13 minutes) constantly after you have pushed your lane. On the purple side, you should try to steal wolves and blue buff whenever possible. Constantly focus on applying pressure to both jungle and top lane.

Your mid game goal is to destroy and constantly push your lane that the enemy jungler and mid lane comes top to gank. When this happens, and you are sure you can’t escape, just fight and take one of them down. It will be a 1 for 1 trade. While you are 1v2/1v3ing top, your jungler and mid laner can roam bot or even take dragon if it’s up. Basically you are ‘distracting’ the enemy team so your team can get ahead by taking objectives.

tldr; Main idea mid game is to keep pushing, take enemy jungle and control top. Bring the enemy to you.

Late Game

When is late game for Tryndamere? ~Remember Ideal Situation

Level 16+

After Inhibitor Tower

2/3 Final Build

Do Baron w/ IE (Bring Jungler REST OF TEAM Pressure MID)

~Keep pushing, take all enemy jungle.
Main idea late game is to keep pushing, while your team is doing objectives. Since by the time you have most of your build, you should be able to 1v1 about anyone on the enemy team. Because of this, the enemy will send more than just 1 person to stop you from pushing. When they come and try to stop you, you ask your team to take objectives such as towers and baron. If the enemy team is ignoring your split pushing, you tell your team to just stall as much as time possible without engaging. While your team is doing this, just keep pushing to their nexus.

~IF YOU GOT A INHIBITOR~
You tell your team to stand by objectives again while you push another lane that has an inhibitor up. By doing this, the lane with inhibitor down will constantly push to their nexus. Their team would have to send people to keep the super minions from attacking their nexus turrets while dealing with your split push. This makes situations like baiting baron and taking a tower more effective. You continue this until you get all 3 inhibitors and eventually their nexus turrets!

tldr; Main idea late game is to keep pushing, bait enemy team to go 4,5 man baron. Get free inhibitors. Do baron when possible. SOLO With IE + BOTRK + LW.

Critical Chance Mechanics

It is easier to watch than to explain. You can test your animation for critting someone before you even land it. This just helps you out with diving in the early phase, doesn't really do anything mid/late game.

Advice, Tips & Strategies

~What Is Pressuring?
A must read. While your on their tower, you can apply a lot of pressure without even touching your opponent. You can even hurt them without landing a single hit on them. A good player while your on their tower will not aim for you if you have a lot of minions on your side. You should know that if the enemy opponent hits you once that they will draw minion aggro. If they do hit you, take advantage of that, it is okay to take a hit for them to take minion aggro. If you feel at that point you can dive them, go for it.

~Baiting - You are able to bait a lot of skills through pressuring without even touching them, try to do this before ever diving if possible. Don't waste too much time if they are smart. Dive them if baiting does not work out.

~Tower Diving Tips:
When tower diving, know your damage output if you have no Undying Rage. Basically, to learn Tryndamere's tower diving potential, you just have to experience it first-hand by tower diving over and over. It is not something that can be taught. When your Undying Rage is currently in use. You have about 3-4 seconds and the last second is usually for your escape. This is more than enough time to kill your target. Do not ever tower dive in with your Spinning Slash as they might flash away. Just walk up to them and then when your close enough follow these steps.

Make sure you have 100 Fury for 35% Critical Chance.

Do not hit them if they have CC.

Scare them and pressure them to bait their CC.

Start attacking them and lower their health.

If you notice that you can kill them, use your Spinning Slash for the last hit. Gets you the kill and gets you out alive.

If tower is still hitting you and your Undying Rage is still in use. (Last Second). If the last tower particle hit is coming to you, WALK BACK INTO THE PARTICLE ASAP. Do not continue running because the particle will still continue to chase you. You have to take the particle hit in order to live afterwards because of the tower buff. You can heal up after that.

~Zoning:
Usually as Tryndamere, you will have a strong lead against your opponent. Zoning involves preventing them from getting any experience and CS (creep score) which sets them behind. You have to understand when to zone and when not to zone. At some times you have no reason to zone, the better alternative to zoning is just to initiate and tower dive them for the kill. This puts them more behind as their tower will kill your minions. At some point, your minions will stack up because you were zoning. This allows you to dive at some point and would be a good trade if you get the kill because they lose all the minions that were piling up in lane.

~Understanding Minions & Pushing:
Sometimes when you do an early cheese and get that FB. You will be completely ahead and dominate the lane because the enemy opponent has died at level 1 and lost a lot of farm because you immediately pushed the lane right after. Even better, their lane will push towards your side which gears you up to start to zone them. They will still be level 1 when you are level 5. If you are able to do that, you will punish the enemy opponent pretty easily. Understanding when your lane is pushing towards his or when his lane is pushing towards your side is essential to trading. If you end up trading a kill and your lane is pushing towards his side, that is a bad idea because the enemy opponent will come back with a small level advantage.

-Scenario Example

Basically, even though you notice that the enemy team has 7 minions. 3 Melee + 3 Ranged + 1 Tank minion, you should be able to immediately tell that the lane is pushing towards my side. It is because that the enemy team's 7 minions are grouped together. Even though one of the enemy's minion is at low health you might assume that my lane is pushing towards his side. However, on my side the 7 minions are in single formation and all at full health. One minion on my side will immediately get targeted and killed which would make it a immedaite 6v7 minion fight. In this case, you can say that his lane is pushing towards my side.

~Seasonscall: Sandwich Method
Picture a scenario where you are split pushing one lane while your team stalls for mid turret. If you are strong, the enemy team will have to pull at least 2 people from mid in order to try to kill you. When those enemies back, take that opportunity to flank the remaining enemies at mid tower, killing them all and taking the turret. Obviously this is not the only situation that can be defined as a sandwich, but this is just an example of one. You can use this technique to take buffs, dragons, barons, and just about any objective on the map if done properly.

~A Must Read: Last Hitting

Last hit every single kill if possible. Tryndamere excels in snowballing.

How to Beat Tryndamere: Go Full AD/AP, Do Not Stack Armor EVER!. Reason why is because Tryndamere will outsustain it, so if you are playing Tryndamere and you notice your opponent stacking armor. You already won the lane, don't worry about it. Lets say they are 4/0 with 100 Armor. You are winning your lane as 0/4 Tryndamere because at some point they won't be able to kill you.

~I'm In ELO Hell, My Team Doesn't Know What Split Pushing IS! D:<
Treat league players like children. What do toddlers do? They hurt themselves over and over, then they realize, oh.. I should stop doing that. At some point they will learn. Treat league players the same way. Keep splitting if you have to, at some point your teammates will group and listen to you and you will end up winning. If not and suddenly you end up losing. Just know this. Losing to teach a lesson is a good thing! -Hao 2013. Never be discouraged from a loss.

Team Fights

If you are forced to fight a 5v5 as Tryndamere (rare cases but possible if all lanes lose), you should never ever go in first. Doing so will get massive CC on you, rendering you from doing nothing for the duration of your HP and ULT. What you need to do is to be on the side of the team. For example, if you are fighting a 5v5 at mid lane, you should be in the wraith camp or wolves camp. As the fight starts, bruisers/tanks will dive toward your carry, whether it is the AD carry or the AP carry. While they do this, the enemy’s backline will be unprotected! This is when you E through them and assassinate them! Either cut into the backline and assassinate the enemy team’s carries, you let your teammates fight and you clean up. At some point you will annihilate their whole team.

tldr; Team fights don't exist with Tryndamere. He'll get CC'd to death. If you really want to team fight, your team has to engage 4v5 first. You are the clean-up crew, never be the first one to go in. That is all.

Losing Situations

Sustainability: Champions out-harassing/out-trading you means you should get two vampiric scepters.

Feeding/Camped: If this happens, AFK farm till 6, try to get a kill off them. If doesn't work, try to take advantage of enemy mistakes. If this doesn't work, farm till Statikk Shiv, then you should start winning lane again.

Hardcore Loss: AFK top all game and keep your fed top from roaming. If he roams, you get free towers. If anyone else comes that is not your fed top, dive him. Make money and profit.

Failed To Cheese:
Mistakes happen, if they just got lucky, do not be demoralized. You will still be ahead in time play normally and judge when you are stronger or weaker.

Final Comments

Any extra questions, please try not to ask from the comment section, as I will not check it regularly. Easier to ask by going to one of the two streams listed below.

If you wish to contact me in-game. Please add Inoue Asebi, that is my smurf. All questions will be answered there. There is no buddy list space on Hao. I apologize. When I am on, so is Inoue Asebi. So basically your my friend as well on Hao!

-Lose to learn how to never lose! cuz If you start winning every game.. then You've lost enough! -Hao

League of Legends is a team based, real time strategy game set in a mythical world of swords & magic where epic battles decide the fate of mystical nations. Game players take on the role of a Summoner who conjures and controls champions to fight for them at the Institute of War. During game play champions gain experience and items to enhance their skills and abilities. How players develop and play their champions can be the difference between a crushing defeat or a glorious victory!